Pel led the way to the basement, and together, the Browns watched Raven vanish into the wall again.
As Pel had feared, there were cat hairs on the black velvet cloak.
* * * *
“Are you people finished?” Amy asked.
“I don’t know,” the FAA man answered, not looking at her, “I really don’t.”
Amy stared at him without trying to hide her annoyance. “Why don’t you know?” she demanded.
“Because I don’t know what the hell is going on here,” he told her.
She stared at him, and he explained, “That thing out there-it’s not an aircraft. There’s no way it could ever have flown under its own power. There’s no engine, just this weird contraption of crystals and metal plates that doesn’t do anything, attached to what looks like a pressure chamber. Some of the equipment aboard is ordinary electrical stuff, and works fine; other equipment is more of this crystal-and-metal nonsense that doesn’t do anything. Those weapons those people were carrying-they have little batteries, but they don’t do anything. All of them, the big one and the ones that look like pistols, they’re harmless. They don’t even light up or make noise like my kid’s toy rayguns.” He shook his head.
“It’s some kind of hoax, I guess,” he continued, “but why would anyone go to all this trouble? And all the expense? Some of the stuff in there looks like it’s made out of gold and platinum, and if it’s all a gag, wouldn’t copper or tin do just as well? And how did the thing get here, anyway? Nobody tracked anything flying around here that shouldn’t have been, and this thing would show up on radar like a Christmas tree, not to mention whatever must have carried it in and dropped it.” He sighed. “Lady, you’ve got a really major mystery sitting in your back yard, and I’m glad I’m not the one who has to figure it out.”
“You’re not?”
“Nope.” He smiled uneasily. “I passed the buck. This close to Washington it’s all restricted airspace, you know-or just about. So I called the Air Force. They’re sending someone out to take a look, and if he’s as impressed as I am-which he will be-they’ll be doing some serious investigating in the morning. And I think they called the FBI, too. I’m waiting around until their man gets here, and after that it’s up to them. I’m hoping he’ll just tell me to go home and forget any of this ever happened.”
“But…” Amy turned and stared around the corner of her house at the huge purple object. “I can’t go home and forget about it! It’s on my land!”
The FAA man shrugged. “I know,” he said, “and I’m sorry. You might want to start thinking about how much to ask if the national security folks decide to buy your property.”
“What?” Amy whirled back.
“Well, they probably won’t,” he said, trying unsuccessfully to sound reassuring. “They may just haul the thing away.” He paused, then added thoughtfully, “Though I’m not sure how they’d do that.”
Amy stared around wildly, looking for a solution and seeing none.
“Listen,” she said, “where’d they take the people who were aboard it?”
The FAA man shrugged. “County jail down in Rockville, I guess,” he said.
“Thanks,” Amy said.
She turned, leaving the FAA man leaning against the maple tree by the driveway, and went into the house. She wasn’t sure just who to call to find out how she could get to talk to those people, the people who had been inside the thing, but she thought she could figure it out eventually.
And if she couldn’t, her lawyer could.
She chewed her lower lip. It was probably time to call her lawyer in any case.
But then she remembered-it was Sunday. No one would be in the law offices on Sunday.
“Damn,” she said, staring out the kitchen window at the ship. Then she shrugged. “So I’ll have to wait ‘til morning. It isn’t going anywhere.”
Chapter Four
“Any word yet?”
The lieutenant started, and looked around. The question had come from a woman in a major’s uniform, a woman he did not recognize immediately.
“No, ma’am,” he said, saluting.
She returned the salute briskly.
“Thorpe should have reported in hours ago, even if Cahn couldn’t,” the major said.
“Yes, ma’am,” the lieutenant agreed.
“You haven’t done anything about it?” she demanded sharply.
“No, ma’am,” the lieutenant answered. “There’s nothing in my orders that says I should, and after Major Copley took ill no one told me anything different.”
The major’s expression made clear what she thought of that argument. “You’ve dropped all the other contacts with that universe?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am-at least, the telepaths were instructed to do so, as soon as the ship went through the warp. I was told that we wanted to be sure Captain Cahn didn’t have any of our contacts interfering.”
“That’s right.” The major chewed her lower lip for a few seconds, then ordered, “Get another telepath down here-one who’s done those interdimensional contacts. I want to know what the hell Thorpe is doing.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The lieutenant started to reach for the telephone, then stopped.
Why bother? His post was supposed to be monitored at all times; the telepaths had already heard him.
Or if they hadn’t, they were in trouble, which would suit him just fine.
* * * *
“And this device of theirs, which they say will destroy an entire city and leave no stone upon another-believe you that it exists, and is not but some mad dream, or a tale to frighten strangers?”
Raven turned up his palms. “Who can say?” he replied. “They spoke of it as though ‘twere but simple fact, they named names to me that meant nothing but had the ring of truth, yet how am I to know whether they speak lies? I’m but a man, not a wizard who can read men’s souls.”
The other snorted. “Would that I could!” he said. “I can see a lie betimes, when ‘tis spoke, but beyond that I’ve no more insight into a man’s secrets than you, my lord. I’m not one of these the Empire has, who claim to hear the innermost thoughts of others as if they were spoken aloud.”
“Telepaths,” Raven said.
“Aye,” the other agreed. “That’s the word.”
For a moment the two were silent. Then Raven spoke.
“What of the Empire’s expedition to this new world?” he asked. “Have we word of their success, or perchance their failure? Have they made contacts, perhaps obtained these terrible weapons?”
“Word is not yet received,” the wizard replied.
“No?” Raven turned, startled, to look at the door of the chamber, as if he expected it to burst open on cue.
The door did not move.
“Did not Elani open the way for our messenger this hour past?” Raven asked.
The other nodded. “Aye,” he said. “That she did, yet there’s no word.”
Raven stared at him.
“Why?” he demanded.
“Because the messenger tells us that the Empire has had no word of their sky-ship’s fate, and our spies can hardly learn what is known to none,” the wizard explained.
“No word?” Raven’s brows drew together as he frowned. “Why would there be no word? They have their miracle-workers, their telepaths-why have they not heard?”
The wizard turned up his palms. “Who knows?” he asked.
* * * *
“I may have to start believing in UFOs and Bigfoot,” Nancy said, as she slumped on the couch and stared at the spot where Raven had sat.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Pel said.
“Why not?” she asked, turning to face him. “I mean, if we can have swordsmen and elves walking through our basement wall, why are space aliens bringing Elvis back from the dead any less likely?”
Pel opened his mouth, then closed it again and considered the statement. He looked at Raven’s unfinished beer, still sitting on the coffee table.
“I don’t know,” he said at last. “Maybe they aren’t any less likely, but the evidence for them is pretty damn weak.”